How to Turn a Laptop Screen Into a Second Monitor

Connect a laptop to an external monitor to use as the primary display. (votre texte / image ici - ecran plat tft / lcd image by Melisback from Fotolia.com)

More screen space is beneficial in many ways. With more viewable real estate on your computer screen, you can run more applications at once and multitask, which will make you more productive.

If you have a laptop computer and a spare CRT or LCD monitor, you can convert the external monitor into the primary display screen for your laptop computer. Turning the screen on a laptop into the secondary display is not as difficult as you might think and only takes a few minutes.

Skill level:

Easy

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Things you need

VGA Cable

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Instructions

1

Plug in the external monitor power cord to an available electrical socket.

2

Turn off the laptop. Connect the VGA cable to the blue video port on the back of the notebook. Plug the other end into the output adaptor port on the external monitor.

3

Turn on the external monitor first and then the laptop computer. Allow the laptop to boot into Windows normally.

4

Right-click anywhere on the open desktop screen in Windows and click the "Screen resolution" link on the pop-up menu.

5

Click the monitor on the screen with the number "2" on the icon display. Enable the "Make this my main display" option and click the "Apply" button. The external monitor now becomes the default display, and then laptop screen becomes the secondary monitor.

6

Click the icon monitor with the number "2" on the display (now the laptop screen). Select the "Extend these displays" option in the drop-down list next to the "Multiple displays" label. Click the "OK" button. You can now drag windows to the laptop screen and extend the desktop.